Space Exploration,astronomy & Cosmology

I think it's broken down as it spent a fair few days in the bitter cold of the lunar night to be honest!

 

Elon will sort something if you ask him nicely.

 

I know next to nothing of these subjects but I do find myself increasingly gazing at little dots of light in the night sky from my bedroom window. Wondering what the hell I’m looking at. Which are planets, which are stars, how can I see something that is so far away, and how can it be that the light/image reaching my eyes has taken god knows how many million/billion years to get here, so that whatever I am looking at may have ceased to exist millions/billions years ago and isn’t there now, ….as I look at it.
Then I go back to bed and sleep like a log.

 

Stellarium is your friend. ISTR they were going to do a phone version - I see that never happened...

EDIT: https://stellarium-labs.com/stellarium-mobile-plus/

 

Yes, have had that on my android phone for a while.

 

That’s brilliant thanks. So it’s Jupiter that’s
been shining so brightly to the ESE.
I’ll have to get my birdwatching telescope out one night.

 

Pretty amazing actually through the telescope. Only 600km away. Light only takes 33 mins to get here.

 

600km? Think you're confusing Jupiter with Glasgow there

 

Meant 600 million km !
It is however very frustrating sitting there for 33 mins waiting for the light to reach my eyes every time I look at it ;-).
And yes I saw the stripes, though not clearly of course. Thought I might be able to take an iPhone pic through the scope but, without an adapter to hold the phone in the right place in the dark, it proved impossible after 10 mins of trying !

 

Enjoy the red spot while it lasts. It's shrinking rapidly!

 

Jovian climate change?

 

Yep. Too many SUVs

 

I didn’t know Jupiter too has a problem with Selfish Unnecessary Vehicles.

 

Looking like the first stab at Starship Super Heavy flight 2 could be on Friday. Window is between 1pm and 3pm.

They are expecting/hoping for final FAA approval tomorrow.

 

License received from the FAA, full steam ahead now for second flight attempt on Friday. Excitement guaranteed from 1pm Friday it would seem.

 

Scrubbed for tomorrow. Not sure why, maybe Saturday or Sunday weather permitting. Back to this is it isn’t it game.

 

Seems to be one of the motors on a grid fin for the booster that needs to be changed. Launch window on Saturday is only 20 mins! I suspect if they miss that no launch until after Thanksgiving due to first weather then the holidays in the US.

 

Currently go for launch, 20 minute window opens at 1pm.

You can watch here if you wish:

 

I am pretty sure that during the last few seconds of the live broadcast, you could see the rocket exploding?

 

It did. So close to reaching shutdown as well! The Flight termination system triggered for some reason.

That was extremely successful. Can’t believe all 33 engines worked up to staging, then it staged fine. After that all is a bonus. So much better than flight 1. An amazing sight and all turned around after the serious damage done in April. Incredible really.

 

First US mission to land on the Moon in 50 years takes off. Peregrine Mission-1, operated by a private company, Astrobotic, will take instruments for NASA and various bits of Star Trek actor DNA on a robotic lander.

https://news.sky.com/story/first-us...nce-apollo-due-to-lift-off-on-monday-13043619

 

On the TV commentary this morning they kept saying the rocket was going for a 'soft' landing on the moon. What does that mean and why not go for a 'hard' landing? Surely any alien life forms that happen to be watching would be more impressed by a 'hard' landing

 

Aren't hard landings a bit... crashy?

 

Ha ha! Is that right? A 'hard' landing means stuffing it into the ground?